FRUSTRATED BY METH USE IN NEIGHBORHOOD

Editor The News;

Those ads on TV earnestly asking for the public's assistance if one
sees suspicious behaviour associated with crystal meth use are a
joke. Don't bother. The police will leave you feeling like hopeless
and helpless idiots. We know from experience.

We live on Tims Avenue in downtown Abbotsford. Last year a "nice"
young couple moved in below us, and since then it's been really busy
around here, especially between the hours of midnight to dawn.

Ambulances attending to heart attack victims in their 20s. Ghoulish
youth with dark, sunken eyes and bad, scabby skin lurking and
prowling about in their hoodies. People puking in the grass or
falling like trees on their faces in the parking lot. Some are on
foot, some ride bicycles and of course a variety of vehicles come and
go at ll hours.

We've experiences whirring machines and high-pitched whining
mechanisms, used for what? For two whole days they had their washing
machine on a timer that sent it spinning every five to seven minutes. Why?

We approached them as our neighbours. We tried reasoning, extra
consideration and even tolerance, hoping they would grab a brain.

Unfortunately, they seem to be completely oblivious, with no brain
left for the grabbing.

So we talked with our landlord. Unofrtunately, his remedy has been to
"speak with them," yet again, which works for approximately a day.

Finally we appealed to the police. My roomate has called them
consistently, to no avail. Instead, he is left feeling like a
criminal or crazy or both.

Our last ditch effort will be to attend some city hall meetings in
hopes that the honourable Mayor George Ferguson will be able to help
us somehow. We will come armed with video and a vast plethora of
licence plate numbers we've recently amassed.

This is an extremely beautiful area, chock full of families, working
stiffs, sweet elderly people and children laying and playing in the
sunshine. Columbia University is a stone's throw away, and we've met
many bright positive-minded youth since living in the area.

What's really out of place here is the dark, ugly seediness of
nervous-looking drug addicts jonesing down the street, unable to
conrol their jerking because of long-term crystal meth use and abuse.

An what's really puzzling is that all this very suspicious activity
occurs not two blocks from the Abbotsford police station, in fact,
right under their very noses. Puzzling indeed.

Brenda Marshall

Abbotsford